Joe O'Reilly: Defending Rural Energy Relief

I'm Margaret Cathaoirleach, and I'm very happy that the previous speaker remembered to mention his nominating base in the speech. I was afraid he might forget, no he did it and did it extremely well, did it extremely well to be fair. Now I want to welcome your minister to the house and thank you for your opening remarks and in fact a number of the general things you said at the end I think are extremely important and I suppose it's not unnecessarily partisan to say or unreasonably partisan for a government speaker to say that we can be very proud with the way the economy was managed over recent years to create budget surpluses to give us the flexibility to respond to the situation we're in and that I think is a great achievement were it not for the prudent management of the economy by successive governments recently we wouldn't be in the position we're in to be flexible and to be nimble and I think it's not an unreasonable thing to say if the opposite were merited we'd be saying it equally loudly and I think your point minister and re-echoed by my colleague on the left here and by Senator Casey as well about the necessary transition from fossil fuels is very very important and I would say minister I'd like to hear you respond maybe at the end I know we're doing a lot of wind energy more needs to be done there and offshore wind energy and we seem to be shying away as a state and as a government from wave energy which we have huge potential in and I know there are huge capital outlays here but you might respond to that and I think your point around retrofitting and the very good news from the SAI in terms of applications is good I think that's hugely significant to see that a very real increase in applications there for to retrofit houses I think there's that paralleled with a switch at a broader level to to green energy is is wonderful and I welcome that I think it's good one of the complaints minister and I know you're here to listen and you're one of the very proactive ministers and you're here to pick up what we want to tell you that's useful and one of the things I'm picking up is that there can be a SEI grants are excellent and the SEI personnel are excellent I had my own interactions with them recently and found them brilliant but all of that's good but there can be an unnecessary delay between the time of application and the grants and maybe that's improving but you might speak to that minister or a or at least check it out at department level I'd be interested in that as I think we all would be a to say that another thing I'd be interested in minister I think from your figures from CSO etc it is being well monitored but we need to monitor the price a decreases have been passed on and that there's no price gouging that there's no bad practice in terms of passing on decreases or reductions in prices and you might speak to that to minister what steps have been taken to ensure that there's tight policing there because consumers deserve that. So I welcome the opportunity to support the bill and to speak to it and fuel and energy costs continue to be one of the biggest concerns facing families businesses and communities across Ireland while prices have eased somewhat in recent months they remain significantly higher than they were only a few weeks or years ago. It's particularly true for rural Ireland where many people simply have to have no alternative but to travel by car and the car is important and all businesses rely on transport a haulage etc and on cars for to remain competitive and remain a business. So I welcome the measures in the bill the increases in the diesel rebate for qualifying road transport operators is a practical measure that recognizes the important role of the haulage sector plays in keeping our economy moving and I think we did respond very well minister and very flexibly there and I think the as you know margins are tight in the haulage sector and there's not potential there for much more pressure so they need the haulage sector needed that response as indeed did agricultural contractors and but there is one anomaly there minister or one lacuna and it would be relevant to look at in the next budget is the price of kerosene for people maybe I know that we've extended the fuel allowance for a month and that was great but there's a sector of people minister who are marginally above minimal income levels etc but are finding it very difficult to buy kerosene and have been and that needs to be considered and people on specific payments like disability payments etc a need need to be looked after there so I'd like you maybe to speak to that at the end as well minister and I know representing a country like Calvin this sheer importance of rural transport there and of a of cars of lorries of tractors all of that we don't have a railway network in Calvin you're all familiar with the song there's no train to Calvin sadly and there were trains to Calvin but they were lost and we have to hopefully get them back the movement to get a train to Navin now is to be very welcomed in that context at the same time we remain committed to Ireland's climate objectives however climate action and affordability have to go together the transition to a lower carbon economy will only succeed if it is practically balanced and supported by the public measures such as these demonstrate that is possible to provide targeted relief while continuing to move towards our long-term goals and I think the great thing about the carbon tax it's it's that it's ring fence minister and that it's used and targeted to the retrofitting to the support of energy and of a lower dependence on fossil fuels etc so I would say that that's the very important strength of the carbon tax and it's it's relevance that it's that it's it's going what it should be going ultimately the bill is about responding to current challenges in a sensible way it supports transport operators helps the board on families and businesses and recognizes the unique challenges facing rural Ireland while maintaining our communities to risk a maintaining our commitment of responsible public finances I think a great example of that is the amendment you're bringing in next week minister where you're you're not having a cliff edge at the end of the of the of the supports and that they are going to be continued in to caution people in a graduated way through why it's it's I would a I would say that a the bill will provide and has provided temporary release from high energy costs and and the supporter to the haulage and transport sector is important to the wider economy and that's an important thing so I think all in all the bill is to be welcomed and I think we can be very proud how is in a country we were the best responders in Western Europe to the crisis but that doesn't mean we should be complacent about the future or not thank you